A local of the British Columbia Ports Longshoremen’s Union has announced that a tentative agreement has been reached between the union’s bargaining committee and the employers.
A statement posted on the website of Local 502 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) indicates that a tentative agreement has been reached with the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA).
Rick Hurtubise, president of ILWU Local 502, said in the statement that an “emergency contract caucus” will be held on Friday to vote on whether to send the tentative agreement to all union members for ratification.
Mr. Hurtubise clarified that Local 502 will call a meeting to present the agreement to its members if the vote is positive.
No mention of a new tentative agreement has been posted on the BCMEA website or the main ILWU site.
The development represents a new twist in a turbulent week in the labor dispute that saw the union reject terms from a federal mediator on Tuesday, only to announce, but quickly rescind a new 72-hour strike notice.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also called a meeting of the Incident Response Group on Wednesday, a decision reserved for crisis situations.
“Dismayed”
Earlier Thursday, Trudeau said the federal government was “appalled” by the longshoremen’s union leadership’s rejection of the federal mediator’s agreement that sought to end the strike at British Columbia ports.
Mr. Trudeau described as “unacceptable” the decision of the union executive to reject this agreement in principle which had been agreed upon at the bargaining table, thus putting the members back in a strike position.
“The impact on workers, families and businesses across the country from this extended strike has been significant,” he said during a scrum in Belleville, Ont.
Uncertainty continued to hang over activities at British Columbia ports, the main West Coast gateways for imports and exports, since the ILWU leadership caucus rejected mediator terms on Tuesday, briefly sending workers back to the picket line.
This decision was deemed illegal by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which led the union to issue a new strike notice of 72 hours on Wednesday, only to cancel this notice a few hours later.
The union, which represents around 7,400 port workers, said its caucus did not believe the tentative agreement “has the ability to protect our jobs now or in the future”, and it asked to return to the bargaining table. He also promised to appeal the decision of the Industrial Relations Board.
The Prime Minister said the government needs to make sure people have confidence in the collective bargaining process.
“We know the best deals are always found through negotiation at the table and that’s what we focus on,” he said. But we also know that this strike could not continue and we are happy to see that the union is reconsidering the good offer that was on the table and the agreement that was accepted by both the union leadership and the (management party). »
The strike originally began on Canada Day and lasted 13 days, halting or severely disrupting operations at more than 30 BC port terminals and other sites where union members work, crippling the transportation of billions of dollars worth of goods.
